


Rosemary, for Remembrance

by lovelygallows



Category: X-Men (Movieverse), X-Men - All Media Types, X-Men: First Class (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Feels, Flower Language, Gen, Gift Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-21
Updated: 2018-01-21
Packaged: 2019-03-05 23:57:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13399005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovelygallows/pseuds/lovelygallows
Summary: “It’s my birthday today,” Charles announces.Erik smiles sadly. “I know, old friend.”Erik can still hear him.





	Rosemary, for Remembrance

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Antonia528491](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Antonia528491/gifts).



> Here's a little something that I wrote for you ages ago, but never got around to showing you. I'm not sure what to make of it now, but I hope you like it.

“Out of my head, Charles, I’m busy.”

Erik can feel the familiar feathery touch in his mind.

 _You’re not wearing your helmet, which I take as a sign that I am not unwelcome._ Charles settles down. _Besides, you’re not doing anything._

“I haven’t worn that helmet in a very long time, not since…” He trails off.

He feels Charles nod mentally.

Even though he knows Charles can hear his thoughts, talking out loud distinguishes his thoughts from Charles’s and is his way of anchoring himself.

 _This moping around isn’t doing you any good, you know,_ Charles tries teasing, but the concern in his voice is showing.

Ever the rational one, Erik thinks. “Everyone is entitled to some emotions.”

_But you can’t keep blaming yourself for what happened. It will not bring you peace._

“I’ve told you, a long time ago, that peace was never an option. Now, even less so.”

Erik’s mind wanders back in time, to that fateful day.

“I could have stopped her.”

Why didn’t he do _something?_

Why did he just sit there, paralyzed and useless, while…

_Listen, she was not herself, she was the Dark Phoenix. Your powers were no match with hers. There was nothing you could have done._

He pauses.

_It’s not your fault._

Erik lets out a strangled laugh, which comes out more like a sob. He feels like throwing something, yet at the same time he feels deflated.

For a long time, neither of them speaks. Silence reigns.

At last, Charles breaks it.

 _It’s my birthday today,_ he announces, in a lighter tone.

Erik, glad for the change of subject, smiles sadly.

“I know, old friend.”

 

Raven makes her way through the campus of Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. It strikes her that things here remain so much the same as she remembers it, while so much else has changed, so much… lost.

Wishing to be discrete and to stay hidden, she has disguised herself as one of the staff members. But she knows the X-Men wouldn’t begrudge her these visits, not after what they had all gone through.

Everyone had been there, at the funeral. After that, she has come at least once every year.

Erik though…

She sometimes sees him talking to himself. Or rather, _by_ himself. It’s obvious who he thinks he is talking _to._

In her hands are some handpicked flowers, pale purplish blue.

Rosemary, she thought. For remembrance.

She smiles a little, for she knows she speaks for Erik as well as herself.

She reaches the memorial. Runs her eyes over the simple epitaph she has read so many times. Stands there for a while, lost in thought.

Then, setting the rosemaries down in front of the tombstone, where other flowers already lie, she whispers, in her own voice:

“Happy birthday, Charles.”

**Author's Note:**

> The title is from Hamlet. In her last scene before her death, Ophelia says while giving out flowers, “There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance. Pray you, love, remember.”
> 
> I pictured this with Charles, Erik, and Raven as they are in First Class, but with the events of The Last Stand (Charles being killed by Jean Grey / Dark Phoenix).
> 
> Written with “Gandalf Falls” in mind.


End file.
